Applied Theatre and Sexual Health Communication

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Understandings of sex, sexuality, consent and safe relationships are as diverse and complicated as the multiple cultures and communities which exist. Conversations about what safe sex means for you or for your community are complex, difficult to negotiate and are regularly furtive or secretive. When sexual health education seeks to intervene it is often constrained, medicalised and 'mechanical' (in that it focuses on the mechanics of the event) and/or focused on creating changes in behaviour. There is often little discussion about different kinds of sexuality nor is space given to understanding what consent or a safe relationship might mean for any one individual. More obviously, the underlying narrative of most sexual health communication, discussion and education programmes are particularly heteronormative. This book brings together two often connected but separately theorised fields: that of sexual health communication and the field of applied theatre and performance. The book offers an alternative to traditional sexual health communication approaches by using as its basis an analysis of a particular applied performance-based project that occurred in South Africa. This book considers another way of approaching sexual health communication while also challenging some key tenets held in applied theatre practice, namely an empowerment, transformation and/or impact narrative. Rather than promoting a 'cause, effect and outcome' model of practice, in terms of using applied theatre as a way of addressing key sexual health concerns, this book offers a powerful argument for the importance of creating a space for dialogue and debate that can occur through arts-based work.